Act I
Scene I.—Jerusalem. A hall in Nathan's house. Nathan, in travelling dress. Daya meeting him.
Daya: 'Tis he, 'tis Nathan, thanks to God, returned,
At last!
Nathan: Yes, Daya, thanks; but why "at last"?
'Tis far to Babylon, and gathering in
One's debts makes tardy journeying.
Daya: Oh, Nathan! How near you came to misery; when afar,
The house took fire, and Recha, 'mid the flames,
Had all but perished.
Nathan: Recha, O my Recha!
Daya: Your Recha, yours? My conscience bids me speak——
Nathan: See what a charming silk I bought for you
In Babylon, and these Damascus jewels.
Daya: I shall be silent.
Nathan: Say, does Recha know
I am arrived?
Daya: This morn of you she dreamed;
Her thoughts have only been with you and him
Who saved her from the fire.
Nathan: Ah, who is he?
Daya: A young knight Templar lately captive ta'en,
But pardoned by the sultan. He it was
Who burst through flame and smoke; and she believes
Him but a transient inmate of the earth—
A guardian angel! Stay, your daughter comes!
[Enter Recha.
Recha: My very father's self! Oh, how I feared
Perils of flood for thee, until the fire
Came nigh me. Now, I think it must be balm
To die by water! But you are not drowned:
I am not burned! We'll praise the God Who bade
My angel visibly on his white wing
Athwart the roaring flame——
Nathan (aside): White wing? Oh, ay.
The broad white fluttering mantle of the Templar.
Recha: Yes, visibly he bore me through the fire
O'ershadowed by his pinions—face to face
I've seen an angel, father, my own angel!
Nathan: A man had seemed an angel in such case!
Recha: He was no real knight; no captive Templar
Appears alive in wide Jerusalem.
Daya: Yet Saladin granted this youth his life,
For his great likeness to a dear dead brother.
Nathan: Why need you, then, call angels into play?
Daya: But then he wanted nothing, nothing sought;
Was in himself sufficient, like an angel.
Recha: And when at last he vanished——
Nathan: Vanished! Have you not sought him?
What if he—
That is, a Frank, unused to this fierce sun—
Now languish on a sick-bed, friendless, poor?
Recha: Alas, my father!
Nathan: What if he, unfriended,
Lies ill and unrelieved; the hapless prey
Of agony and death; consoled alone
In death by the remembrance of this deed.
Daya: You kill her!
Nathan: You kill him.
Recha: Not dead, not dead!
Nathan: Dead, surely not, for God rewards the good
E'en here below. But ah, remember well
That rapt devotion is an easier thing
Than one good action. Ha! What Mussulman
Numbers my camels yonder? Why, for sure,
It's my old chess companion, my old Dervish,
Al Hafi!
Daya: Treasurer now to Saladin.
[Enter Hafi.
Ay, lift thine eyes and wonder!
Nathan: Is it you?
A Dervish so magnificent?
Hafi: Why not?
Is Dervish, then, so hopeless? Rather ask
What had been made of me. I'm treasurer
To Saladin, whose coffers ever ebb
Ere sunset; such his bounty to the poor!
It brings me little, truly; but to thee
'Twas great advantage, for when money's low
Thou couldst unlock thy sluices; ay, and charge
Interest o'er interest!
Nathan: Till my capital
Becomes all interest?
Hafi: Nay, but that's unworthy,
My friend; write finis to our book of friendship
If that's thy view. I count on thee for aid
To quit me of my office worthily.
Grant me but open chest with thee. What, no?
Nathan: To Hafi, yes; but to the treasurer
Of Saladin, Al Hafi, nay!
Hafi: These twain
Shall soon be parted: by the Ganges strand
I'll with my Dervish teachers wander barefoot,
Or play at chess with them once more!
Nathan: Al Hafi,
Go to your desert quickly. Among men
I fear you'll soon unlearn to be a man. [Goes out.
What? Gone? I could have wished to question him
About our Templar. Doubtless he will know him.
Daya (bursting in): Nathan, the Templar's yonder, 'neath the palms.
Recha hath spied him, and she conjures you
To follow him most punctually. Haste!
Nathan: Take him my invitation.
Daya: All in vain.
He will not visit Jews.
Nathan: Then hold him there
Till I rejoin you. I shall not be long.
Scene II.—A place of palms. Enter the Templar, followed by a Friar.
Templar: This fellow does not follow me for pastime.
Friar: I'm from the Patriarch: he is fain to learn
Why you alone were spared by Saladin.
Templar: My neck was ready for the blow, when he
Had me unbound. How all this hangs together
Thy Patriarch may unravel.
Friar: He concludes
That you are spared to do some mighty deed.
Templar: To save a Jewish maid?
Friar: A weightier office!
He'd have you learn the strengths and weaknesses
Of Saladin's new bulwark!
Templar: Play the spy!
Not for me, brother!
Friar: Nay, but there is more.
It were not hard to seize the Sultan's person,
And make an end of all!
Templar: And make of me
A graceless scoundrel! Brother, go away;
Stir not my anger!
Friar: I obey, and go.
[Exit. Enter Daya.
Daya: Nathan the Wise would see you; he is fain
To load you with rewards. Do see him—try him!
Templar: Good woman, you torment me. From this day
Pray know me not; and do not send the father!
A Jew's a Jew, and I am rude and bearish.
I have forgot the maiden; do not make
These palm-trees odious where I love to walk!
Daya: Then farewell, bear. But I must track the savage.
[Exeunt.